• Books and Movies for Adults

    Review-The Bread the Devil Knead by Lisa Allen-Agostini

    In The Bread the Devil Knead, we meet Allie. Confident and ambitious, she portrays an exterior of success while harboring a dangerous secret about her domestic life. This is an engaging read that digs deep into our society’s relationship with domestic abuse and uncovers a path to redemption. (I received a copy of this book so that I could prepare…

  • On Writing

    Sticking Your Point-of-View

    I have been called the POV police, and I’m not mad. As an editor, I am on the lookout for all kinds of issues, character consistency, scene development, sentence structure, and so on, but I am particularly sensitive to shifts in the point-of-view of the narrative that confuse readers or pull them out of the story.

  • Books and Movies for Adults

    Review-Hurricane Summer by Asha Bromfield

    Hurricane Summer is a beautiful and compelling story of eighteen-year-old Tilla’s summer with her father’s family in the countryside of Jamaica. Tilla’s parents migrated from Jamaica to Canada, however, their father has never fully assimilated and spends so much time in Jamaica that the parents’ marriage seems all but over.

  • On Writing

    Publishing 3: Illustrations-Getting it done!

    The following article assumes that you are self-publishing. If you are going the traditional route, your publisher will be the one paying for and making the final decisions about your illustrator and illustrations. This article is also primarily targeted towards picture books, however, it may provide some guidance for cover images as well. So you have finished your book, completed…

  • On Writing

    Publishing 2: To self-publish or not

    Many authors struggle with the decision of whether to self-publish or not. I cannot advise you on the route you should take in publishing your book, this is a personal decision. But here are some things to consider as you make the decision. At the most basic level, the main differences between self-publishing and traditional publishing are time and money.

  • On Writing

    Publishing 1: Yes, you should hire an editor

    Have you ever given someone directions on how to make your favorite recipe then left out an important ingredient or step because it is so second-nature to you that you didn’t even think to mention it? Oversights and many more errors of that type will hang on in your work with the tenacity of a teenager gripping a cell phone.…

  • On Writing

    You wrote your book, so now what?

    At least once a week, someone approaches me with a final draft of their manuscript asking for advice on publishing their manuscript. I love to help. It is such an exciting time, like attending the birth of a baby.

  • On Writing

    October Inspired

    Nerissa Golden recently posted “It’s October! Are you ready to finish the year strong?” Then my son said to me-“You have to figure out how you work best and make that environment happen.”

  • Books and Movies for Adults,  Reviews

    Notes on Parable of the Sower by Octavia Butler

    This is not a review, just my reflection on The Parable of the Sower by Octavia Butler written in 1993. This book is about a young woman, Lauren, growing up in the 2020s when the United States is in a state of anarchy. People survive by living in gated communities with armed neighborhood watches and live barely above the poverty…

  • Books and Movies for Adults,  Reviews

    Review-Kingstown Burning by Rachelle J. Gray

    I received a free e-copy of this book in return for my honest review. Kingstown Burning is a debut novel by Rachelle J. Gray. The book is a work of fiction with speculative elements set in Barbados. It takes readers inside the world of a group of friends who are also Rastafarians and dips at times deeply into the culture…